The Homo Novus Renunciation
by Waterwench
Summary: Sheldon Cooper discovers something surprising and elemental about himself when Penny, once again, is in his spot. Takes place in AU after Leonard and Penny have ended their relationship. Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

The Homo Novus Renunciation

Summary: Sheldon Cooper discovers something surprising and elemental about himself when Penny, once again, is in his spot. Written in a pseudo-Victorian, romantic style and taking place after the inevitable crash and burn of Leonard and Penny's relationship.

**Author's Note**: Please read and review. Remember: reviews = love and affirmation!

Sheldon's mind was a swirl of colors and half-thoughts—a confusing maelstrom in which the normal, orderly patterns of logic and mathematical precision were overshadowed by sensations and feelings which he had never allowed himself to experience before. How could this be happening? How could he have let his guard down, allowing Homo Novus to descend to the animal passions of the rest of the human race?

Earlier in the evening…

Penny slid across the couch and into Sheldon's spot, just for kicks. Unfortunately, Sheldon was currently occupying the same location. Laying her head in his lap and giggling softly, she seemed unaware of the shocked reaction she engendered as she flopped down gently.

"Penny?" Sheldon stiffened in alarm, unsure what to do as the attractive blonde snuggled herself into a more comfortable position, her bare toes tapping a rhythm on the other end of the sofa. She must have had more to drink than she indicated previously, he realized, his body rigid with anxiety and the discomfort he associated with the alien sensation spreading from his cheeks, chest and pelvis in relentless waves. He fought the urge to leap up and run for his room, instead looking down at Penny's unbound hair spilling across the evidence of his increasing arousal.

Sheldon desperately tried distracting himself by silently reciting the Fibonacci sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377…It wasn't working. He switched to a reconfiguration of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation of molecular wave function-- Still no dice. Great Caesar's Ghost! How could she not feel that? Sheldon blushed and squirmed with shame, unable to control his mounting erection. Meanwhile, Penny was still giggling.

"What's so funny, Penny?" he asked somewhat defensively, not quite sure if she was laughing at him. He resisted the urge to reach out and smooth the strands of hair from her face while simultaneously fantasizing about leaping the couch in a single bound and locking himself safely in his room until Leonard, Wolowitz and Koothrappali could return from their road trip. With Penny in her present position, neither seemed like a viable option.

"I'm in your spot!" she burst out with a full, throaty laugh—a contagious, gut laugh that actually had Sheldon smiling a genuine smile in response, much to his surprise.

"Yes, you are. Do you need some assistance to get back into your own spot, Penny? I'm given to understand that coffee is a remedy for over-indulgence of alcohol—would you like some?" His East Texas drawl was most apparent when under stress, and this was the worst kind of stress to his mind—a social situation without precedent, with no established protocol and involving a member of the opposite sex. In fact, it involved the only member of the opposite sex whom he considered a friend. Even he was aware that the potential land-mines were legion.

"No, thanks, Sheldon—I like it down here!" More giggles followed and Sheldon could not restrain his hand from gently moving a lock of golden hair from her face. His fingers stroked her brow and cheek as he did so, and his genuine smile remained in response to her unaffected warmth and fondness. Penny fell silent as she searched the cornflower blue of his eyes, overcome by a sudden poignant tenderness for her strange friend, her robot man with so few human connections and relationships. Her heart quivered in her chest as she tried to breathe more slowly and evenly, compassion spilling over into desire. On impulse, she reached up a slender hand to stroke Sheldon's face. He froze in place as her fingers explored the smooth-rough texture of his 5 o'clock shadow, unable to breathe or even think.

Penny felt he was looking straight inside her, as though her very soul were naked and his glance was enough to strip away all pretense and deceit--revealing truths she had kept hidden even from herself. He _saw_ her—the _real_ her. The thought brought an unexpected surge of arousal to her body and her eyes popped open. As these thoughts drifted through Penny's mind, Sheldon's heightened senses detected the first appearance of a sex flush as it spread across Penny's chest and neck, blooming in her cheeks and causing a small gasp of surprise to escape her parted lips. His erection sprang up at the realization and his hips bucked instinctively. Oh, God! Startled—alarmed!--his heart raced and he couldn't seem to control the insistent, heated pressure coming from his long-denied genitalia. Yet despite his dismay, there was a definite, building excitement that would not be denied by Homo Novus or anybody. His hand reached down…

Penny's gasp became a low moan as he stroked her earlobe and the length of her golden neck with his long fingers. A surge of power erupted in his chest as he realized that his simple touch had done that. He leaned closer to her, entranced by her shaded green gaze, by the sound of her breath coming in quick gasps, by the flash of the pulse at her smooth, soft throat…

"Kiss me, Sheldon," she whispered, pulling his head down as she lifted herself up to meet him somewhere in the middle, unable to believe this was happening and yet unwilling to do anything to make it stop. She needed to touch those innocent lips with her own, needed to make a connection with the man behind that smoldering and somehow terrified blue stare.

Sheldon felt himself drawn down to her as a siren would draw a drowning man to his doom, nothing but sensual awareness flooding his ears and eyes and throat. His lips touched hers tentatively, igniting a spark felt by both. Emboldened, Penny deepened the kiss, gently reaching for Sheldon's tongue with her own as she sat up and shifted position to accommodate his long, lean frame. Without thinking, he enveloped her small body in his arms and her thighs spread to straddle him. He realized that they were both still in his spot. As her breasts pressed against his chest and she nipped and suckled at his neck and earlobe, he found he didn't mind so much…


	2. Chapter 2

Rivulets of fire blazed across Penny's skin where Sheldon's fingers traced curlicues and pathways leading God knows where. Enchanting murmurs and sweet nothings issued from her throat as Sheldon followed her lead to bite gently at her neck, breathing into her ear and stimulating the nerve plexus just beneath the skin. Warmth pooled between her legs and she squirmed closer to the growing bulge in Sheldon's trousers, rubbing against him in a way that both soothed and inflamed her desire. Sheldon groaned as she thrust against him. His long-fingered hands grasped and stroked her thighs before climbing her torso to tentatively snake their way beneath her turquoise top. He paused, uncertain once again, and Penny met his eye bravely as she pulled it off, revealing her bare and glorious form.

Sheldon was rendered speechless for a full minute, unable to process the sight before him: Penny, disheveled and half-naked, her blonde hair tousled, eyes wide and dilated and lips red and kiss-swollen. Her breasts heaved, nipples erect and rosy, her skin warm and glowing…He couldn't look away. Penny, sensing the need at last to reclaim her status as a "Big Ol' Five," took his hands and placed them on her full breasts. She leaned into his grasp, unable to contain her sounds of pleasure as he bent his head to suckle her on one side, rubbing and stroking her other breast.

"Oh, yes…Sheldon…lick it…now the other one…Ah!" she murmured boldly, gasping as Sheldon's lips, tongue and teeth became more insistent. His hands clutched at her hips and derriere, hiking up her skirt and driving her wet core against his aching cock. They both moaned at the contact.

"Take off my panties," she ordered softly, grinding herself down against his rigid cock once again and riding the wave of burning pleasure that resulted.

"Oh, Penny…" Sheldon could not say more as he grasped her skirt in both hands and pulled it over her head swiftly, revealing a pair of surprisingly innocent cotton hipsters featuring her favorite Japanese kitty-cat. His flash of amusement was overshadowed by a sudden, new awareness of her. The fragrance of what he could only assume to be arousal, coupled with the visual stimuli of a noticeable wet spot on her otherwise pristine undies drove Sheldon wild. He nearly ripped her panties as he recklessly struggled to get them off, clearly desperate to enter her wet and ready opening. Penny stood to assist him, and pulled him to a standing position as well.

"I want to see you, too," she demanded, instantly embodying Queen Penelope to her very toes. She reached beneath his shirts and felt his smooth, warm skin, stopping to encircle his nipples with her fingertips. He shivered with pleasure. His shirts fell to the floor and Penny's talented tongue traipsed across Sheldon's lightly muscled chest. With an unusual flash of insight, Sheldon kicked off his shoes as her hands found his trousers. Penny quickly divested him of his favorite pair of plaid pants and The Flash logo socks he was wearing, leaving her crouched at his feet and face to face, so to speak, with his tidy whities. Their eyes met and locked…Sheldon was so far outside his realm of experience that he could only wait, breathless, for her next move.


	3. Chapter 3

Lacing her fingers into his underwear, she pulled them down and off. His hard, throbbing penis sprang out and Penny caught it in her hands, reveling in the sheer heat of his impressive member. Gazes still linked, Penny closed her mouth around his delicious cock, sliding her hands up and down the shaft as she sank down, taking him in as far as she could.

"Oh, dear Lord--Penny!" Sheldon choked, completely swallowed up in sensual pleasure. Penny smiled and continued her actions, this time rolling her tongue across his glans, lightly cupping and stroking his balls so that he moaned and thrust his hips forward uncontrollably. Penny sighed with delight and continued licking, sucking and nibbling, her breasts tingling and the ache between her thighs becoming even sharper, stronger. She thrilled to every moan and thrust, her power over him as deep as his was over her.

Sheldon's hands wound through her hair and were trapped in her elf-locks as if by some spell. He was drawn closer and closer to the pinnacle of desire—all doubts gone, all logical thought obliterated as Penny kneeled before him and showed him the pleasure to be had from another human being…

Nearly insensible with lust and drunk with power, Penny abruptly let him go with a faint "pop." Sheldon grunted with surprise as she rose and grabbed his penis with one hand, purposefully leading him down the hallway by it.

"Where are we going?" he asked foolishly, still in a daze and unable to formulate any more complex thoughts.

"To your bedroom, sweetie," she murmured with promise in her voice.

"But people can't be in my bedroom!" he burst out.

"Oh?" she inquired, pushing him suddenly back against the wall and tightening her grasp. Stroking back and forth rapidly, she elicited another strangled cry from her friend and almost lover. Sometimes smart people could be so stupid, she thought. She gathered his lips in a kiss, lightly touching her tongue to his and reminding him of what could be done in a bedroom.

"Ah, Penny--Penny! Okay! You can be in my room!" Sheldon blurted, forgetting his prohibitions in the face of an overwhelming physiological imperative—Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex Sex!

They fell onto the bed together, lips hungrily devouring, fingers stroking and exploring every inch within reach. Sheldon came back to himself and recalled that sexual activity was meant to be a mutual endeavor…and to that end--Penny squeaked in surprise as Sheldon's sensitive fingers unerringly found her clitoris and the slick wetness of her pussy, dipping inside briefly as his thumb massaged her pleasure button.

"Oh, God—Sheldon! Yes, just like that--" Her moans were punctuated by sharp, passionate cries and the sounds of Sheldon kissing her breasts and murmuring encouragement as he set about his goal of bringing Penny to orgasm with a determination that would surely someday win him the Nobel Prize…He followed her cues, recalling with perfect clarity the pages he had read about manual clitoral stimulation as outlined in "The Joy of Sex" by Dr. Alex Comfort. He had sneaked a copy into his dorm to read beneath the covers at the Heidelberg Institute when he was 15. Purely for research, of course—he never dreamed he'd be able to put it into practice!

His eidetic memory supplied what he lacked in real-world experience, and it seemed to be working. Penny's eyes were closed, her body humming with barely-contained tension as Sheldon played upon her like an instrument. He stroked her again in the rhythm she set. She was so magnificent that he couldn't stay silent.

"Penny…you're so beautiful. Come for me, Penny, come for me…" he whispered into her ear. With a sudden, shuddering cry, Penny arched off the bed as undulating ripples of voluptuous pleasure broke over her, riding Sheldon's gifted fingers until the last drop of passion was spent. Languid warmth spread through her, and surprise, and delight. She could have closed her eyes and floated away that very moment. And yet, Queen Penelope was far from done. Resisting the lure of exhaustion, she took in the sight of Dr. Sheldon Cooper, theoretical physicist, studying her face with a look of utter fascination. Her expression was soft, tender…


	4. Chapter 4

"Come lie on me, Sheldon…lie on me," she coaxed softly, guiding him with her arms to rest his long, firm body on her softer, smaller one. Sheldon was unable to resist her—he could not engage his methodical mind to convince his body to refrain from this intimacy, this point of no return with Penny—nor did he want to! Penny sensed uncertainty on some level, but when Sheldon settled onto her body, it was right and good.

She felt the wonderful hard, hot length of him pressed against her belly and wiggled her hips with her hands on his butt to guide him to her wet and willing center. She kissed him lightly at first, then with increased fervor as he penetrated her hesitantly, slowly, giving her time to adjust to his generous size and girth. His eyes closed and his face was a mask of dedicated concentration as he thrust carefully, fearful of hurting his beloved Penny.

"Yes!" Penny cried softly as he rooted himself within her, bumping her still-swollen clitoris and causing a ripple of sensual aftershocks to roll through her body.

"Oh, Sheldon, Sheldon…" she gasped quietly. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and urged him on…faster, deeper. Oh, God—it was _good_! Penny still couldn't believe it was happening, but on some level, she knew she had always wanted it to happen. She felt overwhelmingly feminine as his large body covered hers and drove her deeper and deeper into the bed with every push. His clean smell was in her nostrils and she tasted him on her tongue as he thrust slowly at first, then with increasing eagerness as he realized that she wanted and needed him as much as he did her.

Sheldon's mind was a swirl of colors and half-thoughts—a confusing maelstrom in which the normal, orderly patterns of logic and mathematical precision were overshadowed by sensations and feelings which he had never allowed himself to experience before. How could this be happening? How could he have let his guard down, allowing Homo Novus to descend to the animal passions of the rest of the human race?

But this train of thought was obliterated as Sheldon allowed his body free reign, for once…The sensations were too strong to deny—the feel of Penny beneath him, raising her hips to meet him, her hands clasping his buttocks and pulling him inside her, grating out sounds of pure lust as she nipped his shoulder—it inflamed him more than he ever thought possible. He grunted with every thrust now, excitement mounting, and Penny answered with a candor that shocked him.

"Sheldon, Sheldon…yes! Do it--I need it—I want it—oh, God, yes, oh GOD!" Sheldon was blasted over the edge the moment her tight, dewy tunnel clasped him and her nails dug into his back. He came, shooting jets of liquid heat into her secret warmth, his moans of abandon mixing with Penny's love-cries as simmering waves of orgasmic pleasure broke over the two. He poured his very soul into her, and she accepted it…

They floated slowly back inside themselves in the minutes that followed…exhausted, sated, and unsure of what had just occurred. Penny loved his weight on her, and ducked her head into the hollow of his shoulder, savoring this closeness. Strangely, Sheldon was not bothered by the fact that his sheets and comforter were pulled willy-nilly across his bed, nor that the combined sweat and bodily fluids of two people had most likely contaminated the very mattress lying beneath the layers of soft cotton.

He felt he had been given a gift, a rare glance into the real world of ordinary people, and for once the word "ordinary" did not conjure with it an image of mentally inferior troglodytes. He saw what he missed by being the sole member of a new species. Homo Novus? What good was that separation when it meant that for the first 30 years of his life he denied himself the opportunity to love and be loved? His mind might be brilliant, but his spirit needed the support of others, too…it needed at least _one_ other—Penny.

He gathered her in his arms and rolled over, taking her with him into a more comfortable position. Sheldon kissed the top of her blonde head and sighed.

"What's wrong, Sheldon?" Penny asked, almost afraid of the answer. Being with Sheldon, seeing him without his shields up, truly naked for the first time—was exhilarating and frightening at the same time. Her friend and neighbor had shown his human side to her time and again, but always with a distance between them. Now the fences were gone, and she had seen him and loved him as he was. Had he seen the _real_ her, or was it just wishful thinking? Was this nothing but a drunken hook-up after all? Would he retreat to his former role now that she had satisfied his sexual curiosity? She tensed, expecting a dismissal.

"I've never felt anything like that before in my life, Penny," his voice was soft, plaintive. "I've known you for years—and we've had more than our share of disagreements—"

"Like when you nearly had me playing Panty Pinata?" she interjected defiantly.

"Well—yes," he continued, somewhat apologetically. "But what I'm trying to say is that I've found out something important tonight." Sheldon paused, taking a deep breath. "I don't want to be Homo Novus anymore, Penny. I want to be a man. A very intelligent man, but just a man." Penny breathed a sigh and laid her head down, listening to the muffled, steady thump of Sheldon's beating heart.

"You _are_ a man. And I'm a woman…_just_ a woman. Not a goddess, not a queen…except in my imagination…" Sheldon felt the curve of her cheek against his chest as she smiled.

"Yes, Penny…you're a woman—" he paused. His heart sped up but he pressed on despite his fear that what he was going to say would drive her out of his bed and his life forever. "You're the woman I love."

That last was almost a whisper, cut off by the frog in his throat as he fully realized that declaring his love after nearly 4 years of friendship and occasional bouts of barely-disguised enmity would be tantamount to dancing in the light of his burning bridges. What if she only meant this night to be a "friends with benefits" arrangement? What if she regretted their lovemaking and wanted to forget it ever happened? His mouth was dry and his blood ran cold at the idea of being Penny's disposable toy.

Her head rose quickly and she caught his gaze with her own, hardly daring to believe what her ears had just heard.

"YOU love--? Sheldon, sweetie—my robot man, my comic-book-loving, Spock-quoting, neat-freak, crazy and impossibly brilliant man--" She stopped, seeking truth and finding it in his beautiful, clear blue eyes. "Don't you know that I love you, too?"

They met again in a kiss so sweet, so pure, that no power on earth or in heaven could deny its verity. In that moment there was no need for words—a question asked was answered, love given, received, and given again in an infinite loop of joy that held the promise of coming home. At last they broke apart, though their spirits were coupled comfortably together. And then--

"So, what the heck are we going to tell the guys?"


End file.
